“Doctor, she doesn’t seem to want to let go,” Cash tells the man.
“Stay,” I croak.
“Okay, they can stay. If you would just move to one side of the bed, please.” I hear more rustling, and the sound follows Duke from my side until he and Cash are both touching my arm on the same side.
“Okay, Caroline. Can you open your eyes?”
“Hurts,” I try to say.
“Hey Tina, can you grab me a bottle of warm saline and some clean gauze?” he tells someone. “Okay, we will come back to that. I’m going to just move your gown a little and check your wounds. Do you remember what happened?”
“No.” A breathy whisper. It’s getting easier now.
“Well, you were assaulted. I will let the police explain that part. But your injuries have been quite extensive.” He unbuttons my gown at the shoulder and moves it open, shielding my breast but exposes my side. He gently probes my ribs, and a hiss of pain escapes my lips. “You had a punctured right kidney, a lacerated lung, and a gallbladder bleed. We managed to control the bleeding in your gallbladder. We did have to remove the kidney as the damage was too great, but the good news is you can live with one. You will meet with a nephrologist, a kidney specialist, as soon as you’re feeling a little better to explain what this means. Your lung was punctured but seems to be doing okay post-surgery.”
As he lists off the various injuries, I hear the breathing of the men beside me become shallower and at one point, Duke removes his hand which had started shaking.
“Thank you, Tina. I am going to just apply some pressure with warm saline to your eyes and see if we can help get them open, okay?” I feel the wet cloth placed against my eye, warming me. Once he’s finished, I try to open my eyes again and I am successful this time.
A kindly looking man with gray hair leans into my field of vision. It’s a little blurry but if I concentrate, he comes into focus. “It’s so good to see those green eyes open, Caroline. I’m just going to continue my exam while I ask you some more questions, okay?” I try to nod again and wince.
“Don’t try to move your neck. You have some significant bruising to your trachea and the neck tissue which will make talking and moving your neck difficult for a few more days. It should get better every day. Now, let’s see.” He probes my shoulder, and I whimper. “Yes, that is quite sore I’m sure, but it’s a flesh wound and didn’t require stitches or anythingso it should be feeling better soon. Bite marks can be so painful.” Bite marks?
Honestly, I have no idea what has happened. I can’t remember anything. I have a missing kidney, a punctured lung, a bite mark, and a bruised throat.
“What day?” I ask, pushing my sore throat to its limit, hoping my point comes across.
“It’s Thursday, Caroline. You’ve been asleep for five days. You came in on Sunday morning around three am. Okay, I will leave you now, but I am scheduling a follow up CT scan to check for any rebleeding in your abdomen and to check on the healing of your lung and gallbladder. Tina will take good care of you.” And then, he’s gone.
I’m laying almost completely flat so I move my hands, feeling around for the buttons I know must exist.
“What can we do, Caroline?” Duke asks, leaning over me so I can see him.
“Up, please.”
“Okay, Caroline, I’m going to raise the head just a little at a time, let me know if it hurts,” Tina tells me before slowly lifting my head and the rest of the room appears.
“Okay,” I tell her when the angle starts to be too much.
“Great, let me just get some vitals and I will be out of here.”
“Can she have, like, water or something? For her throat,” Cash asks her.
“Of course.”
Once she’s gone, Duke returns to the other side of the bed and they both sit. We exist in silence for a little while and I am dying of curiosity about what happened and why they are both here.
“Duke,” I whisper, and he jumps up, leaning over slightly.
“Yeah, baby?” Hearing him call me baby makes me want to melt into the bed, but I have no idea what any of this means. Islide my eyes toward Cash and see him watching me earnestly, affection in his eyes. He doesn’t seem to care that Duke called me baby or is here at all. What happened? What landed me in this bed and what happened while I was asleep?
“What ha—” My voice breaks halfway through the word, and I feel a tear run down my cheek. Duke wipes it away. He looks at Cash and they stare at each other for a few heartbeats before Duke begins his story.
After he finishes, ending with me being stabbed and them coming to the hospital and sitting with me for four days, I ask, “Roger?”
He again pauses, looking at Cash again as though they are having some sort of private communication that I am not privy to.
It’s Cash that speaks this time. “He’s gone, darlin’. Like, forever.”
